Drugs and the Politics of Consumption in Japan

The 'politics of consumption' in Japan allow a reevaluation of the boundaries between accepted and deviant, licit and illicit in a global historical perspective. What political, economic, social and cultural processes shaped particular perceptions of drugs in Japan? What policies and practices make Japan historically comparable or connect Japan to other countries? Contributions are about drug production and trade, consumption, addiction and prohibition in Japan and its overseas territories from the pre-modern to the postwar period.

Please find the conference flyer and program here.

Programm

Thursday, August 22

13:45-14:00 Opening

Judith Vitale and Ulrich Brandenburg, University of Zurich: Opening Remarksa

Raji Steineck, University of Zurich: Welcome Address

14:00-15:30 1. Knowledge and Consumption in the Pre-modern Period

Anna Andreeva, University of Heidelberg
Childbirth, Buddhist Notions of Pain, and Pain Relief in Medieval Japan

Jonas Rüegg, Harvard University
Goblins, Spirits and Mushrooms: Hallucinogens in Japan Before the Invention of ‘Drugs’

Discussant: David Howell, Harvard University

16:00-17:30 2. Commerce and Diplomacy

Ozaki Kōji, Otemae University
Opium and Japan in the Late Tokugawa and the Early Meiji Eras

Ulrich Brandenburg, University of Zurich
Opium in Meiji Japan’s Internationalization: The Cases of Iran and the Ottoman Empire

Discussant: Martin Dusinberre, University of Zurich

18:00-19:30 Keynote Lecture

John Jennings, USAF Academy

Friday, August 23

10:00-12:15 3. Commerce, Consumption and Empire

William Gervase Clarence-Smith, SOAS, University of London
The House of Samuel as Official Supplier of Opium to the Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1926

Timothy Yang, University of Georgia
The Pharmaceutical Business, Empire, and Modern Japan

Hung Bin Hsu, National Cheng Kung University
Poppy Tent as Private Paradise? The Transformation of Social Activities and Spaces of Opium Smokers in Japanese Colonial Taiwan

Discussant: Harald Fischer-Tiné, ETH Zurich

13:45-16:00 4. Pre-War Period

Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, University of Colorado Boulder
Japan’s ‘Belle Epoque’: Narcotics in Japanese Imperial Fiction

Judith Vitale, University of Zurich
Drugs and Inter-War Anxieties

Christopher Szpilman, Teikyo University
Narcotics and the Japanese Right Wing: The Curious Career of Fujita Isamu

Discussant: Mariko Iijima, Sophia University

16:30-18:00 5. Post-War Period

Jesús Solis, Harvard University
Drug Trafficking and the Consumption of Narcotics during the Occupation Period

Jeffrey Alexander, Pueblo Community College
Horrible Hiropon: Anti-Meth Campaigns in Postwar Japan

Discussant: Sheldon Garon, Princeton University

Saturday, August 24

9:30-11:45 6. Recent Trends

William Marotti, UCLA
The Politics of Violence, Glue-Sniffing, and Liberation: Making 1968 in Japan

Oleg Benesch, University of York
Japan’s Magic Mushroom Moment: Legality, Morality, and Identity

Maki Umemura, Cardiff University
Regenerating Medicine in Japan, 1973–present

Discussant: David Chiavacci, University of Zurich

12:00-13:00 Concluding Remarks and Final Discussion

Chair: John Jennings, USAF Academy